As the second week of December came to a close the Saskatoon real estate market continued to show great spirit. With 145 firm sales in the bag already, month-to-date sales are shaping up to deliver the strongest December in a decade. This week, local agents reported 63 firm residential transactions to the MLS®, down four from the previous week to beat sales for the same period last year by 12.
New listing activity continued to soften as it always does at this time of the year. Only 70 new listings were added to the multiple listing service® this week, down 39 the week before. This week’s totals come in shy of the number of new Saskatoon homes listed during the same week last year by 47 units.
MLS® listing inventory in the residential category also followed a typical pattern for the season as the total number of Saskatoon homes offered for sale on the system declined by 62 from a week ago to settle at 1678. That’s just 16 more homes than were available a year earlier, and ten fewer than the final count for this same week in 2015, once again moving us out of “record for the week” territory. On Saturday afternoon, when I pulled these numbers, there were 924 single-family homes showing an active status on the MLS, down from 968 a week earlier, but still well ahead of the 866 properties that could be found on the system last year at this time. Condo inventory went lower by ten from a week earlier to settle at 639, for an annual decrease of 16 units.
With a strong showing of buyers for homes priced above $500K, including one sale that topped $900,000 the average sale price of a Saskatoon home remained strong at $339,048 while the median price was stable at $323,000. The six-week average price fell about four thousand from its close a week earlier to reach $339,048 for an annual decline of six thousand bucks. The four-week median price grew by three thousand dollars from last week reaching $323,000 for a year-over-year drop of six thousand dollars.
Even with brisk sales activity, December’s sale price to list price ratios are weak, as they almost always are during this particular month when sellers are either in a giving mood, or buyers are feeling particularly grinchy. My experience suggests that it’s likely the former. As the holidays approach, sellers consider a decent offer to be a gift that they would sooner keep than return. This week, only two sellers actually got their price while 61 of the period’s 63 sales were reported to have traded below the asking price by an average of $16,110.
Here is a breakdown of what the sales to listing price ration looked like on this week’s sales.
I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions. All of my contact info is here. Please feel free to call or email.
Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra
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